What is Islam?

CERMOM is pleased to invite you to a round-table discussion on Shahab Ahmed's book "Qu'est-ce que l'islam?" on the occasion of the publication of its French translation.
Couverture de l'ouvrage "Qu'est-ce que l'Islam"
Couverture de l'ouvrage © Qu’est-ce que l’Islam ? À la recherche d’un nouveau paradigme, Éditions Fenêtres 2024, 704 p.‎
What is Islam?
Table-ronde autour de l'ouvrage de Shahab Ahmed
à l'occasion de la parution de sa traduction française

On the occasion of the publication of the French translation of Shahab Ahmed's posthumous work (m. 2015), CERMOM (Francesco Chiabotti) in collaboration with the publisher Fenêtres is organizing a round-table discussion that will bring together male and female researchers, as well as the book's publisher and translator. Participants will be looking back at Shahab Ahmed's far-reaching project, which seeks to understand "Islamicity" in the context of a wide range of cultural and religious phenomena, bringing in the perspective of more Eastern islams (Persian, Ottoman, Indo-Pakistani, Central Asian) to counterbalance a certain Arabocentrism that has characterized both the religious construction of Islam itself, and its scholarly study. Shahab Ahmed fundamentally questions the dominant conceptions of "religion" and "culture", in order to show the full internal diversity of Islam and, ultimately, to provide a new explanatory paradigm, a new grid for reading the complexity of Islamicity. This re-reading is capable of bringing together legal treatises and Persian ghazal, "folklore" and scholarly sources. This round-table will be an opportunity to question our own research practices and disciplinary and areal divisions.

With the participation of:

  • Eric Vallet (UNISTRA)
  • Mathieu Terrier (LEM)
  • Amélie Neuve-Eglise (INALCO)
  • Mehmet Balsever (publisher)
  • Dilek Sarmis (UNISTRA)

Moderation: Francesco Chiabotti (INALCO-CERMOM)

The round table will be followed by a cocktail reception from 8pm to 9pm.

With the support of the Inalco Foundation.